Corrected entry: Close to the end of the crucifixion one of the soldiers says something like "He's dead" and Abdenader orders him to confirm it by stabbing a spear into Jesus' body. He calls him by the name of Cassius. The soldier who stabbed Jesus was Longinus. There has also been a historical Roman soldier called Cassius Longinus but he was involved in the assassination of Caesar and had nothing to do with the events shown in the movie. Seems they mixed up these two.
Corrected entry: When the Romans are nailing Jesus' hands to the cross, they pull his right arm out straight so he forms a "T" with his arms. In fact, a point is made that his arm was pulled so hard to the side that it was dislocated. However, in subsequent scenes, Jesus is shown on the cross with his arms in a "Y", which couldn't have happened if his arms were pulled that severely to the side.
Correction: This has been corrected, dislocated shoulders equal more stretching room.
Corrected entry: In the entire film the actors, almost without exception, are shown close up with perfect immaculately white teeth - impossible in First Century Judea.
Correction: A lot of people think that teeth in ancient or medieval times would be rotten because there was no toothpaste, but keep in mind that their diets contained far less sugar and far more natural foods than ours, therefore tooth decay would be a lot less common, leading to healthier teeth.
Corrected entry: When Judas tries to return his reward for turning over Jesus, the men do not accept it, which is how the bible told it, yet when he left, he threw the money down and left. In the bible, it says that,"With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field." (Acts 1:18) It goes on saying it was that field where he hung himself. How did he pay for a field with those 30 pieces of silver if he threw it back at them and left it there?
Correction: Judas did throw the money on the floor and leave as the movie showed. It was the "chief priests and elders" who bought the field with the money Judas had earned by betraying Jesus. Matthew 27:3-7 says "Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." But they said, "What is that to us? See to that yourself!" And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. The chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, "It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood." And they conferred together and with the money bought the Potter's Field as a burial place for strangers.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Jesus and the two robbers are on the crosses, the robber who sticks up for Jesus has his hands nailed with his palms on the wood, in another shot of that scene, you can tell his hands are cupped, which they couldn't be if his palms were against the wood.
Correction: Only his right hand is nailed palm down, his left hand is nailed palm up.
Corrected entry: In the scene where they turn over the cross, shouldn't Jesus be lying face down on the ground with the cross on top him? It looks like the cross is propped up on something. When they turn over the cross, it goes from lying on the ground flat to being propped up on a rock (I would assume). However the ground around the cross is flat.
Correction: This is actually intentional. A Spanish nun whose writings Mel Gibson used in the film had a vision that when they flipped Jesus' cross over, God prevented his body from being crushed on the ground by making the cross levitate.
Corrected entry: After the repentant thief receives Jesus' famous "You will be with me in paradise" line, the second thief laughs, and then is attacked by a crow. Crows only peck at dead/TOTALLY immobile creatures, which this thief obviously was not. Ergo, the resistance he gave (shaking his head and screaming) would have, if nothing else, kept the crow from pecking at his eye until he was dead/motionless.
Correction: The crow could be sent by God to further punish the unrepentant thief.
Corrected entry: When The Christ is crucified and the Roman soldier pierces his side with the spear to be sure his spirit is gone, the water and the blood flowed from his wounded side spattering everyone in the vicinity with gore but moments later when Jesus' mother Mary is holding her son, there is no intimation of any type of gaping wound in Christ's side.
Correction: The wound was a pierce, it would be hard to see from a distance and it wouldn't continue being open once the water and blood quit flowing.
Corrected entry: After the Crucifixion scene the nails that were used can be seen. They are perfectly straight as if they had never been used or bent.
Correction: The nails were straightened so they could be taken out of the cross.
Corrected entry: In preparing Jesus for the Crucifixion, the Romans have to dislocate his shoulder to get his palm over the nail hole. However, when the cross is erected, Jesus "hangs" down from his arms indicating extra slack between his hands.
Correction: Dislocating one or both of his shoulders would have created a great deal of extra slack.
Corrected entry: While Mary is holding Jesus after he dies, you can see him blink a few times.
Correction: You never see Jesus blink. He would've had to open his eyes to blink, and he doesn't.
Corrected entry: In the scene of the flogging, it showed the soldiers counting the number of blows. This is historically inaccurate, for only the Jews, who had a limit of 39 stripes, kept count of the number of blows. The Romans would not keep count of their many blows, leading many to die by scourging.
Correction: In this instance, history tells us that the romans kept count. They stopped at thirty nine as a sign of mercy, forty lashes would have been judgment. Sometimes they didn't keep count, but it is historically recorded that they lashed Jesus thrity nine times, and they did it on purpose.
Corrected entry: At the very end Jesus is resurrected, his face is all healed up and shows no scars, but his hands still show holes from the nails.
Correction: According to the Bible, this is how Jesus proved who he was. The holes in his hands were the proof of his crucifixion.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Jesus confronts the crowd of stonethrowers attacking Mary Magdalene, he first draws a line in the sand holding a rock in his right hand. In the next shot, it appears that the rock is in his left hand.
Correction: He's not holding a rock. The line is drawn with the index finger of his left hand. Then he bends down and starts to write in the sand.
Corrected entry: Jesus is roped to the cross by his wrists, then nailed to the cross, which is then turned over in order to hammer flat the nails. Baffling and totally pointless: he isn't exactly in a position to try and escape.
Correction: The source of the scene is from the Dolores passion accounts of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich. She never stated the flipping of the cross in her detailed vision. The cross was in fact not flipped over but an exaggeration of the imagination of Mel Gibson regarding Roman torturous crucifixion.
Correction: There is no Biblical record of the name of the soldier who stabbed Jesus.